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9th grade · English Language Arts · Unit 11 of 14

Proofreading

Spelling and word choice in final drafts

What your child practices

Students practice proofreading in US spelling: commonly misspelled words and confusing pairs such as affect and effect, accept and except, principle and principal.

New York State Learning Standards learning standard: 9-10L2; 9-10L3 · editing writing for correct spelling and word choice

How we explain it

Children can open this short lesson before they practice.

  1. Principle is a rule or belief. Principal is a school leader, or means main.
  2. Affect is usually a verb, effect usually a noun. Accept means receive, except means leaving out.
  3. Learn tricky words in parts: ex-is-tence, li-ai-son, en-tre-pre-neur.

Example: “The decision was based on a ___ of fairness.” principle or principal? The blank means a rule or belief. Principle is the rule or belief. Answer: principle

Proofreading in New York

In the New York State Learning Standards, this is unit 11 of 14 in 9th grade English Language Arts, after Research & Credibility and before Media Analysis.

Gradelings describes a child's practice on this unit as Beginning, Approaching, Meeting or Exceeding (Four practice steps). That reflects practice, not a report-card mark: the teacher decides the mark.

Source: New York State Education Department (NYSED)

Sample questions

A taste of this unit. In the app, questions change every time and get easier or harder to match your child.

  1. Question 1

    Which word is spelled correctly?

    • harass
    • harrass
    • harras
    • haress

  2. Question 2

    Which word is spelled correctly?

    • rhetorik
    • rhettoric
    • retoric
    • rhetoric

  3. Question 3

    Which word is spelled correctly?

    • consciencious
    • conscientius
    • conscientious
    • conscientous

  4. Question 4

    Which word is spelled correctly?

    • concience
    • conscence
    • conscience
    • consciense

  5. Question 5

    Which word is spelled correctly?

    • pasttime
    • pastyme
    • passtime
    • pastime

  6. Question 6

    Which word is spelled correctly?

    • ideosyncrasy
    • idiosyncracy
    • idiosincrasy
    • idiosyncrasy

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